Abuse of Power
by britt299919
Summary: When Nightwing shows up at the Cave with a group of strange teens, it sets off a chain of events that could end in total global destruction. (4 way crossover, but don't let that scare you. The main characters are from YJ and GF. Also sorry about my terrible summary. I'll try to fix it later.)
1. Chapter 1

**AN: WHAT'S UP PEOPLE? ARE YOU IN THE MOOD FOR A CRAZY EXTREME FOUR WAY CROSSOVER? CAUSE IF SO, BOY DO I HAVE A STORY FOR YOU!**

 **In all seriousness, this thing is going to be quite the juggling act to pull off. As I mentioned, it is a four way crossover between Danny Phantom, Young Justice, Gravity Falls, and Alex Rider. If you don't know all of those characters, that's fine. Everything you need to know about them is explained in the story. You mostly just need a solid background in Young Justice and Gravity Falls, and even if you don't, it will probably be okay.**

 **On a completely unrelated note, my main problem with the stories I write on this site is that I make them up in my head first. Which is like, cool, except they get so wildly implausible and overblown, but it doesn't matter cause it's just for me and I don't care about plot holes when I'm entertaining myself. But then I get this urge to tell other people cause dangit if it isn't a great idea that everyone deserves to read, but then I have to turn this convoluted mess into an actual story with a plot that makes sense and stuff like that. Which is difficult.**

 **SO! The moral is: Don't judge this thing too harshly. It was greatly amusing to me when I thought it up, so hopefully at least some of you will get some joy out of it!**

 **(also this is completely unrelated to any of my other stories and is set after the end of season 2 in Young Justice. Honestly, it's set after the cannon run of all the stories, with some slight changes to how they ended. Also, Mt. Justice is still around and the team works out of there. Cause… I like Mt. Justice. :D)**

 **I don't own (deep breath) DANNY PHANTOM, ALEX RIDER, YOUNG JUSTICE, OR GRAVITY FALLS! Phew. This is going to be a mouthful to type each time…**

* * *

Kaldur rubbed his forehead, trying to relieve his headache. It had been a difficult day. Team Alpha had failed their mission, landing three of them in the infirmary. Connor had destroyed the training room, and Garfield and Bart weren't talking to each other for some reason. It was chaos.

The Atlantean sighed, knocking his head gently against the wall. There were days when he almost missed being undercover. Surely tricking the enemy into believing he was evil was better than trying to wrangle a collection of teenagers with superpowers. It had not seemed this hard to lead before he went undercover in the Light.

Kaldur knew the real reason it seemed harder. He'd had Nightwing to lean on before. He was the most experienced of all of them, and he had held the team together during one of their worst times. Even back when he was still Robin, he had been a glue of sorts, binding the team together. With him gone, things seemed to just fall apart.

Nightwing had been off the radar for nearly four months now. They knew that he was still active, but no one had been able to nail down his location. Well, maybe Batman, but if he had he wasn't telling. Kaldur didn't even necessarily want Nightwing to rejoin the team. He just wanted to be able to talk to one of his oldest friends again. M'gann and Connor were good, but he, Wally, and Dick had been friends for such a long time. They had been the original teen heros, a group. Now Wally was dead and Dick was gone. Kaldur had never felt more alone, not even when he had been undercover all by himself.

Kaldur shook his head, pushing himself away from the wall. He was done feeling sorry for himself. He needed to check on his injured teammates, make sure they would heal fine. Then he needed to talk to Batman about repairing the training room. Kaldur winced internally. He was not looking forward to that conversation. And he should probably get Jaime to talk to Garfield and Bart. If anyone could fix that situation, it would be him.

Before he could actually act on any of those things, the zeta tube went off.

"Recognized. Nightwing B01."

Kaldur would deny it to the day he died, but his mouth fell open at those words. Could it really be?

He ran to the main room, desperately hoping that his friend had returned. As he skidded into the room, he spotted the acrobat, stumbling out of the zeta tube. His joy quickly faded as he realized that Nightwing was in bad shape. His uniform was in tatters and he was bleeding.

"Nightwing!" Kaldur ran up to him, searching for injuries. "What hap-"

"Not now."

Nightwing shoved past the shocked Atlantean, staggering over to the main console. He began typing, having to pause every few seconds to get the shaking of his hands under control. He finally managed to finish whatever he had been trying to do, and he slammed one last button.

Immediately the zeta tube lit up again.

"Recognized. Guest Z01. Guest Z02. Guest Z03."

Nightwing limped back over to the zeta tube, staring at it intensely.

"Come on, come on." He muttered under his breath.

More of the team had made it into the main room by this point. Kaldur kept them back, sensing that Nightwing wouldn't take kindly to conversation at the moment. Kaldur didn't know what was going on, but he knew Nightwing. They wouldn't get anything out of him unless he wanted to tell them. Trying to force the issue would just make things worse.

As the seconds passed, Nightwing seemed to deflate.

"No…" he whispered, looking utterly destroyed. Kaldur took a hesitant step forward, not quite sure what to do. He was about to speak when a figure suddenly materialized in the zeta tube.

Nightwing immediately brightened, rushing forward to help the figure who was stumbling out of the zeta tube. Kaldur took in the new person. He was a teenage boy, rather short with curly brown hair. He looked panicked, his breathing fast and his entire body trembling. He swayed a bit, almost toppling over before Nightwing caught him.

"Dipper?" Nightwing asked, worry permeating his voice. "Are you okay? Where are the others?"

The boy- Dipper- squinted up at Nightwing.

"The others..?" he mumbled before his eyes rolled up into his head and he passed out. His skin started to glow and his shaking got even worse. Nightwing cursed.

"Not now," he muttered, gently setting Dipper down. He looked up at the rest of the team for the first time since he had entered the Cave, his gaze scanning them.

"Zatanna!" He called, relief evident in his voice. She approached cautiously, her brow furrowing as she took in the shaking teen.

"Can you help him?" Nightwing asked desperately. "Ground him or something?"

Zatanna looked at him questioningly, but she nodded. She placed a hand on the boy's forehead and muttered a spell. His shaking lessened, and the glow enveloping his skin faded.

Dipper taken care of, Nightwing went back to staring at the zeta tube, clearly waiting for the 'others' he had mentioned. It had been almost a minute since Nightwing had entered the Cave. Based on both Nightwing's and Dipper's conditions, Kaldur was worried about whoever had been left behind.

He had almost given up hope on the 'others' when two more shapes appeared in the zeta tube. They staggered out, one clearly supporting the other. The more mobile one was blond, his eyes fierce as he scanned the room for threats. He was holding up another boy who looked only partially conscious. His black hair was matted with blood which dripped down his face.

"Danny!" Nightwing hurriedly took some of the injured boy's weight, helping the other teen carry him further into the room. The black haired boy blinked, seemingly a little more aware.

"I'm fine 'Wing." He slurred, batting weakly at the arms holding him up. "Quit fussing."

"He has a concussion." The blond said bluntly. "That's why it took so long. I had to drag his sorry butt all the way over the zeta tube. He can't even walk by himself."

"Can so…" the boy (Danny?) mumbled. He was immediately proven wrong as he almost face planted. The blond caught him with a huff, dragging the boneless teen more or less upright.

"Seriously Danny? You of all people should recognize what a concussion feels like. Sometimes I feel like you have one more often than you don't."

"Mean…" Danny whined. "Where's Dipper? He's never mean to me."

The blond stiffened, looking around frantically.

"It's alright Alex." Nightwing said, placing a hand on the blond's shoulder. "Dipper's here. He's fine."

Alex shook his head. "He has on the verge of an attack! Don't you dare tell me one hasn't happened."

"It has." Nightwing admitted. "But Zatanna stabilized him. He'll be fine."

Alex seemed to truly relax for the first time. He heaved a great sigh, some of the tension going out of his shoulders, though he never loosened his grip on the dangerously unstable Danny. Kaldur figured this was as good a time as any to intervene.

"You can bring him to the infirmary. We'll patch him up."

Alex stiffened again, he gaze locking onto Kaldur. The Atlantean had to fight the urge to take a step back under the force of the glare. Nightwing stepped in between the two, holding up his hands.

"Chill Alex. They're friends. I wouldn't bring you somewhere unsafe."

Alex eyed the team suspiciously, but he finally conceded with a stiff nod. Connor stepped forward, lifting Danny gently. The boy in question mumbled something unintelligible, but he didn't fight the hold. Alex hovered nearby, switching between looking at Danny with concern and glaring at anyone who got too close. The group of three left the room, heading toward the infirmary. Kaldur turned back to Nightwing, taking a deep breath.

"Not that I'm not glad to see you…"

Nightwing laughed breathlessly.

"Yeah, sorry about this. I would have called ahead but there wasn't really time."

"What happened?" M'gann asked, coming up to Nightwing and giving him a hug. She pulled back hastily when he winced.

"You're hurt!" She cried.

"I'm fine." Nightwing said, waving a dismissive hand. "It's just a scratch. I'll fix it up later. Right now, we have a lot to talk about."

Kaldur nodded, turning to the rest of the team.

"You can all go back to what you were doing. Nightwing and I will discuss what has happened. We will have a meeting about it later."

A couple of the teen heroes grumbled at being dismissed, but they all cleared out. Kaldur nodded in satisfaction.

"First things first." He walked over to Zatanna, crouching next to her. Nightwing followed, kneeling next to Dipper, taking one of his hands.

"Is he alright?" Kaldur asked. He didn't know what was wrong with the teen, but it didn't look good.

"He will be." Zatanna said, but she still looked worried. She looked at Nightwing, concerned.

"What happened to him? I've never felt someone with this much uncontrolled magic running through their system before. In all honesty, it should kill him, but his body almost seems used it. How is that possible?"

Nightwing looked incredibly sad. He brushed Dipper's bangs away from his face, wincing at the obvious fever that was wracking the boy.

"It isn't really my story to tell." He said softly. "Suffice it to say that he was born to magic and he will probably end up dying because of it."

Nightwing straightened abruptly, standing up and walking away.

"Do you have a room where he could rest?" He asked in a tight voice, his arms crossed over his chest. "The worst is over at this point. He just needs sleep."

"Of course." Kaldur said. "Zatanna, you know…"

Zatanna nodded, standing up. She whispered a spell and Dipper floated into the air. She walked out of the room, leaving Nightwing and Kaldur alone for the first time since the whole fiasco started.

Kaldur walked up to Nightwing and gave him a fierce hug, ignoring the acrobats injuries. Nightwing hugged him back just as fiercely. They separated, smiling at each other.

"I missed you my friend." Kaldur said genuinely.

"I missed you too." Nightwing said with a rueful smile. "I honestly did not mean to go AWOL for so long. Things… happened."

"Things like the ones that just stumbled into the Cave?" Kaldur asked, raising an eyebrow. Nightwing winced.

"Sorta. I've actually known them for a while now. But yeah, they were part of it."

"Who are they?" Kaldur asked. He wasn't sure when Nightwing would have found the time to befriend a random group of teenagers, or why he would keep it secret. It actually hurt a bit to know that his friend hadn't trusted him.

Nightwing noticed his hurt expression.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to introduce you to them before, but you were undercover, and then everything happened, and it just never happened. I was always planning on you guys meeting, but it's complicated."

"Complicated… how?"

Nightwing grimaced. "Well, for one thing they're all wanted by the government."

"What?" Kaldur yelled. He honestly hadn't expected that.

"It's not their fault!" Nightwing said hurriedly. "They're good people! Heroes even. They've just… had some really bad luck."

Kaldur rubbed his forehead, his headache from before making a vicious return.

"I need more Nightwing. I can't just harbor fugitives!"

"I know! I know, and you will. Just give them time to recover, and we'll explain everything. I promise!"

Kaldur nodded. He knew Nightwing, and if he said these kids were good, than he would trust him. It didn't make his headache any better.

"You couldn't have just come back uneventfully some day and rejoined the team without any complications?" He asked, only partially joking.

Nightwing laughed, a more carefree sound than Kaldur had heard from his friend in a long time. He threw an arm around the Atlantean, still laughing.

"It's good to be back."

* * *

 **AN: Tada! First chapter! Explanations next time (which is also where you will see the changes to cannon in all their stories).**

 **I was** _ **this**_ **close to writing Alex and Danny out of this story because the main focus is on Dipper, but in the end I kept them in. I just have a bunch of ideas for interactions between the three of them that I really like, and I dunno. It makes the story more fun! And more complicated… Sigh. Why do I do this to myself.**

 **Bye for now guys!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Well, this is certainly a very fast update. Don't get used to it, all three of you that have followed this story. I usually have the beginnings of my stories very planned out, and then have to muddle through the middle and end. So updates tend to slow down.**

 **I don't own Danny Phantom, Alex Rider, Gravity Falls, or Young Justice. And I'm going to see how many different orders I can type that in.**

* * *

Kaldur stood with the team, taking in his 'guests'. They were gathered together in a nervous clump a few feet away from the team. Alex stood in front, tension visible even from this far away. Danny stood behind him and to the right. The teen seemed much more lucid now and had a thick bandage wrapped around his head. He poked at it every few seconds, ignoring Alex's disapproving look. Dipper stood mostly behind Alex, clearly hiding. The kid looked like a nervous wreck, his fingers twitching constantly, never looking anyone in the eye.

Nightwing stood between the two groups, bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet. He cleared his throat, his gaze darting between the two groups.

"So. Um. Hey guys. Long time no see."

The team stared at Nightwing blankly. The acrobat winced a little, looking away.

"Right well. I'd like you guys to meet my friends. They're…"

Nightwing trailed off looking a little lost. Alex rolled his eyes.

"Freaks?" Danny offered helpfully, finally leaving the bandage alone. Nightwing frowned.

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that…"

"Nightwing, you promised explanations." Kaldur said, slightly exasperated. "You said something about them being wanted by the government?"

"What?" Alex yelled, whipping around to glare at Nightwing. Nightwing flinched, holding his hands up defensively.

"Come on Alex, we couldn't have kept that secret. It wouldn't be fair to ask them to shield you without them knowing what they were getting themselves into."

"We could have just left." Alex hissed, looking absolutely furious. "You had no right to-"

"I don't want to leave."

Alex blinked, turning to look at Dipper. The teen flushed, looking away from Alex's searching gaze.

"What do you mean Dipper?" Danny asked, looking a bit surprised that the kid had spoken at all.

"It's just… I feel better here. Better than I have in a long time. And I think it's because of her."

Dipper gestured toward Zatanna before realizing what he was doing. He turned a brighter red and hunched in on himself. Alex and Danny exchanged a look. Danny shrugged, seemingly indifferent. Alex groaned.

"Fine. We'll stay. But I'm still mad."

"Hold up! Before anything is decided, how about we get some explanations." Connor said. "Like Nightwing said, we need to know what we're getting ourselves into."

Alex sighed.

"Okay fine." He muttered. "Want to know my whole life story? Here we go. My dad was a spy, which got him and mom killed when I was a baby. My uncle, also a spy, trained pretty much from birth to follow in his footsteps. Then he died, and various intelligence agencies, mostly MI6, blackmailed me into working for them. I did that for a year til the head of '6 had a crisis of conscience and sent me to live with a foster family in the US. But then the CIA started snooping around, so I took off, cause no one is going to control me like that again."

Alex huffed, clearly annoyed. "I didn't really expect them to label me a terrorist. Now any law enforcement agency that gets its hands on me has to hand me over to the CIA. And from there… I honestly have no clue what they would do to me. And I'm not particularly keen on finding out. I mean, they've freaking water boarded me before, and that was on accident."

Kaldur blinked as he tried to process the mass of information Alex had just spilled. It… was frankly terrible. He wished he could say that he didn't believe Alex, but he had enough experience with the government to know that such a thing very well could happen.

Kaldur knew that there had to be more to Alex's story, but the teen had apparently said all that he was willing to. He was now looking at Danny expectantly, but the black haired boy didn't seem to notice. He had gone back to poking his bandage.

"Um, Danny." Nightwing prompted. The teen suddenly noticed that everyone was looking at him.

"Oh!" Danny said. He smiled brightly. "I'm an abomination of nature!"

Alex rolled his eyes and smacked the back of Danny's head.

"Ow!" Danny whined. "Headwound here!"

"Quit being a baby." Alex scoffed. "We both know that it's practically healed by now."

Danny shrugged, smiling again.

"You got me there." He said cheerfully, pulling the bandage off his head. Or rather, through his head. He had turned it intangible. Or he'd turned himself intangible. It was hard to tell.

"You're a meta?" Bart asked, sounding excited about this turn of events.

"Sure." Danny said with a grin. "Except, no not really. I'm actually a hybrid. Half human, half ghost. Which really sucks for me because ghosts are considered non-sentient by the US government. And also their existence is illegal. So technically, me existing is breaking the law."

"Wait. Ghosts? Seriously?" Garfield scoffed. "No way."

"Hey, ghosts are real!" Artemis snapped. "I've met one. And I have to admit, she seemed pretty sentient to me."

"Of course she did." Danny agreed. "All ghosts are sentient. It's just biased scientists who say otherwise. The government believed them because it's easier to wipe out a threat if you don't have to worry about it's rights."

"But you should be protected, considering you're still half human." Robin pointed out. He paused for a second, thinking it over. "Which is weird. How is that even possible?"

Danny shrugged. "I dunno. Like I said, abomination of nature."

"Danny…" Alex groaned. "We've talked about this."

"What? It's true. I shouldn't exist. Things aren't meant to straddle the line of living and dead like I do."

"Okay wait." Artemis cut in. "So you're a ghost hybrid, however that works, whatever. Why is the government after you? Surely they can tell you aren't like… dead or something."

"Oh they know." Danny said carelessly. "That's why their so eager to get their hands on me. I'm 'special.' Once they realised I was a halfa, I had to run. No point putting my family at risk, you know? If they ever caught me, they'd probably cut me open and mess with my insides or something like that. They say ghosts can't feel pain so…"

Danny shrugged. He seemed entirely unbothered by the fact that a group of mad scientists wanted to experiment on him.

Kaldur swallowed, trying to hold down bile. He was pretty sure that there was something wrong with Danny. No one should be able to discuss their own potential vivisection so calmly and cheerfully. What had happened to Danny to make his so unconcerned with the idea of his own survival?

The whole group now turned to Dipper, who cringed under their attention. Kaldur almost didn't want to hear Dipper's story if it was anything like the other's, but he had to know.

"Um… it's kind of a long story." Dipper whispered, keeping his gaze glued to the ground.

"It's okay Dipper." Alex said gently. "Take your time."

Dipper took a deep breath, stealing himself.

"Okay. Well, you guys know about magic, right?"

The team all nodded. They were pretty experienced with magic, both good and bad. Dipper nodded, seemingly encouraged.

"Right. Well. Every summer for as long as I can remember, me and my sister would spend the summer in this town called Gravity Falls with our Great Uncles. The thing about Gravity Falls is that it's teeming with magic, and one of my Great Uncles had spent the vast portion of his life studying it. So me and my sister ended up learning a lot about it too."

Dipper hesitated. The shaking in his hands got worse.

"Um… well. Everything was fine til this one summer. See, Gravity Falls is actually a weak point between our world and the chaos dimension. That's why so much weird stuff happened there. And… well. In the chaos dimension there are demons. And they want to get into our world. Which is what ended up happening."

Dipper was about to continue when he paused. "This is where it gets a little complicated."

"You got this." Danny said with a grin, patting Dipper on the shoulder. Dipper gave him a shaky smile.

"Okay. Um… have any of you ever heard of the Cyper Wheel?"

Most of the team looked blank, but Zatanna gasped.

"Of course!" She said. "It's one of the most powerful magical sigils in existence. No one has ever been able to figure out how to channel its energy without being completely destroyed."

"Yeah, well there's a reason for that." Dipper said with a slight smirk. It was the first time he'd shown any emotion except anxiety. He held his hands together in a prayer type pose and then opened them as if he was opening a book. To the team's surprise, an actual book made of golden light appeared in Dipper's hands. He flipped through it before stopping on a certain page. He swiped his hand across the page and a large circle flew off of it, floating in midair. It spun slowly, the symbols along the outer edge circling a triangular figure in the middle.

"This is the Cypher Wheel. It was created to serve one purpose, to banish the demon Bill Cypher back to the chaos dimension. Ten people were chosen from before the start of time to channel the energy and put an end to Bill Cypher once and for all."

The symbols on the outer edge began to glow.

"Each person was represented by one of the symbols." Dipper continued. "I was the Pine Tree, and my sister was the Shooting Star. Together we were going to stop Bill."

Dipper's smile faded. "Only… it didn't end up working like that. Half of the Wheel were killed, and those of us that were left couldn't do it alone. In the end, the US army invaded Gravity Falls and got any survivors out, but the town itself had to be abandoned. Gravity Falls is now a nightmare, overrun with demons. Luckily, they can't get out. Something about Gravity Falls traps the weirdness in, but they're all still there. Just waiting for their chance."

Dipper sighed. He watched the wheel mournfully. Half of the glowing symbols faded, presumably representing those who had died in the battle with Bill.

"The government set the surviving members of the Wheel up in some facility. They wanted to use our magic, but there was a problem. The magic of the Cypher Wheel was never meant to just sit around. It was meant to be used up defeating Bill. When that didn't happen, we were left with a lot of excess power with no where to go."

As Dipper talked, another symbol of the Wheel faded.

"With only half of the Wheel still alive, the magic was too powerful to contain. Attempting to use the power always ended the same way. It killed the remaining members, burning them up from the inside. In the end, only my sister and I were left. We had been doing magic our whole lives, so we could withstand it a little better."

Only the Pine Tree and the Shooting Star were lit on the wheel now. Dipper rubbed his arms.

"Of course, when I say we handled it better, I mean it didn't kill us. My sister… the power was too much for her. She went insane, killing the some of the guards at the facility and running off. I was left alone.

"The army was insistent that I use the power of the Cypher Wheel, but I didn't want to. Using that power… it's dangerous. I was terrified of what I would become if I did. So I ran away. And they've been after me ever since."

Dipper looked incredibly tired as he finished his story. "Now all the power of the Cypher Wheel is contained within me and my sister. If we died, it would be released all at once, and probably destroy the entire world. I do my best to control it, to keep it from going crazy, but it's hard with my sister out there doing who knows what with it. The balance of the magical world is in danger. I do my best but…"

"You do great." Alex said brusquely. "I can't imagine anyone doing better."

Dipper smiled gratefully. "Thanks Alex."

Dipper stepped back, clearly done talking. Alex moved slightly in front of him, glaring at the team.

"Well?" He asked. "You know now. Are we allowed to stay, or are you going to turn us in?"

"Of course not!" M'gann said. "We don't work for the government. We do what's right, regardless of what the law says."

"M'gann is right." Kaldur said. "You are all welcome to stay as long as you like. You have nothing to fear from us."

Alex still seemed unsure, but Dipper seemed happy. He relaxed a bit, even attempting a smile. Danny, rather predictably, looked like he couldn't care less. He grinned, shooting Kaldur a double thumbs up. Nightwing looked practically ecstatic.

"So." Bart said, running up to Danny. Alex looked like it took everything he had not to just attack the speedster, but Danny merely raised an eyebrow. "You're half ghost, huh? What does that entail exactly?"

"Would you like to see?" Danny said with a mischievous grin. Bart nodded excitedly, eager to learn about a new hero. It wasn't often that Bart met someone that he didn't already know about from the future, so it made sense that he would be fascinated by this mysterious group of powerful teens.

Danny laughed. A bright light lit up at his waist, splitting into two rings that went up and down his body. As the rings passed over him, his appearance changed. His normal clothing changed to a skin tight jumpsuit. His hair turned bright white, and when he opened his eyes they glowed a toxic green.

Danny floated off the ground, sweeping into a deep bow. "Allow me to introduce you to Phantom, ghostly superhero and scourge of all ghost hunters everywhere."

Bart and Garfield both started clapping, before stopping and glaring at each other. Apparently they were still fighting. Jaime came forward, studying Danny with interest.

"Whoa. What can you do?"

"What can't I do is a better question." Danny said with a smirk. Jaime grinned right back.

"Come on! Let's go outside and you can show us! Normally we'd use the training room, but it was destroyed yesterday and we haven't gotten it fixed yet."

"Cool." Danny said. "How did that happen?"

The two teens walked out of the room, Bart and Garfield following. Alex watched with increasing alarm.

"Danny, wait!"

He was about to run after them when Nightwing stopped him.

"Relax Alex. Danny can take care of himself. You're going to give yourself a heart attack at this rate."

Alex scowled, grabbing Dipper by the arm and marching out of the room. Dipper yelped, but he didn't try to escape the hold, following Alex without complaint. Kaldur raised an eyebrow at their retreating figures.

"He's not very friendly, is he?" He asked Nightwing. The acrobat sighed.

"He has trust issues. Not really surprising considering… well anyway. Thanks for letting them stay. Things have been getting dangerous."

"You know, you never really explained what happened." Connor pointed out. "How did you meet them? And who attacked you guys?"

Nightwing shifted uncomfortably. "As for how I met them… it just kind of happened. I ran into each of them separately and I helped them form a group. Safety in numbers, right? I was working on figuring out how to get the government off their backs when everything happened. It had to go on the backburner for a while. So when Kaldur came back, I figured it was a good time to check in on them."

"Let me guess, everything had gone wrong." Barbara said dryly. Nightwing grimaced.

"Not quite, but yeah. Some group has been on their tail for months now. They've had to relocate almost twice as often as they usually do. The group chasing them finally caught up yesterday. They were just lucky I was with them, or things could have gone bad fast."

"So the government almost caught them?" Kaldur asked for clarification. Nightwing shrugged.

"Maybe? It's not that simple. They're not just wanted by the government. Alex has several terrorist organizations that would love to get their hands on him. And Danny has plenty of enemies in the ghost community. Dipper, well, his sister is always trying to get to him. It's impossible to know who it was that finally managed to catch up."

Kaldur fought the urge to groan. He was starting to realize why Nightwing had been so hesitant to introduce the teens to the team. There was just too much going on with them. Still, they seemed like good kids who had just had a terrible break. And Kaldur had never been the type to back down from a challenge just because it was hard.

"Alright. Well, they will be safe here until we can figure something out."

Nightwing grinned. "I knew I could count on you!"

Kaldur smirked. "You do realize that I have to tell Batman about this."

Nightwing's smile faded. "Oh no."

* * *

 **AN: Sorry about all the exposition. It had to happen, but I hope it wasn't too boring. Future chapters will be more fun!**

 **You may have noticed some weird behavior from our merry little group of troublemakers. I will tell that not a single one of them was a reliable narrator, not even Nightwing. They all either withheld some pretty pertinent information, or just straight up lied. So get ready folks! This is going to be quite the ride!**

 **Bye for now!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Aight, cool. Story's picking up steam. Excellent. You know, I went and checked and there are only like, six stories in the YJ/GF crossover section. And that's including mine. Which is like… wow. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. So yeah. Interesting, right?**

 **Anyway. I don't own Alex Rider, Danny Phantom, Young Justice, or Gravity Falls. And apparently my instinct is to write it in the same order each time cause when I checked, it was the same as last time and then I had to go change it. Weird.**

* * *

Nightwing walked into the training room. It had finally been repaired, and the team was making good use of it. Right now Connor and Cassie were sparing, with the rest of the ream watching. Nightwing was about to move on when he noticed Alex standing in the corner.

"Wow." He said, walking up to Alex. "Unusual to see you alone. Sure you can handle it?"

Alex flipped Nightwing off, not taking his eyes off the fight that was happening in the middle of the room. Nightwing laughed, leaning against the wall next to the teen spy.

"Seriously, where are Danny and Dipper?"

Alex scowled. "Danny said he 'needed space.' And that I was more tightly strung than a wind up toy. He may have also told me to pull the stick out of my-"

"Alright, I get it." Nightwing struggling to hold in his laughter. "What about Dipper?"

"He locked himself in his room." Alex said, looking morose. "He won't come out. And Danny refused to phase me through the wall, no matter what I said. Which led to the stick comment."

"You know, he kind of has a point." Nightwing pointed out. "It wouldn't kill you to relax every now and then."

"It might." Alex muttered. "Come talk to me when we aren't being hunted, and maybe I'll listen."

Nightwing sighed. To say Alex was paranoid would be something of an understatement, but it was also understandable. What's that thing people said? It's only paranoia if people aren't actually out to get you?

"I get that Alex, really I do. But Danny and Dipper are both more than capable of taking care of themselves. You could trust them for once."

This got Alex to actually take his eyes off of the fight. He looked at Nightwing like he was crazy.

"Are you kidding me? Danny has the self preservation instincts of a freaking lemming. And you could stab Dipper and he would apologize for bleeding on you. I swear, I have absolutely no idea how either of them survived before I came along."

Nightwing couldn't really argue with that. He turned to watch Connor and Cassie. They were fairly evenly matched, so their fights were always entertaining. Alex watched as well, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"This could be a good place for you." Nightwing said softly. "You should join the team."

Alex snorted. "Yeah right. What part of 'wanted fugitive' are you not getting?"

"Hey, that's what the mask's for." Nightwing said easily. "No one would know it was you."

Alex was quiet for a minute, still taking in every detail of the spar. Finally he shook his head.

"Thanks, but no. I'm not like you Wing. I have no experience going up against super humans. I'm mostly alive due to luck, not any particular skill. Besides, I ran away so that I could stop fighting. I don't want to just throw myself into the front line again."

"I could train you." Nightwing offered. "You've got more experience than Tim did when he became Robin. Or if you really don't want to fight, you could coordinate from the Cave. You have a wicked tactical mind Alex, and you never miss anything. You could be a great asset to the team."

Alex hummed non comitaly. Nightwing sighed.

"Just think about it, okay?" The acrobat begged. "If not for yourself, than for Danny and Dipper. I really think they could be happy here."

"Alright, alright, I'll think about it." Alex snapped, but there was no real heat to his words. Nightwing smiled, happy with the small victory. He settled in to watch the end of the match.

In the end, Cassie gained the upper hand. She flipped Connor, pinning him to the ground. The kryptonian struggled, but he was unable to break her hold. He finally conceded and the team swarmed Cassie, congratulating her. Alex snorted, and Nightwing looked at him with amusement.

"Anything you'd like to say?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "That fight went on too long. They both had plenty of opportunities to take down the other, they just missed them. And that final move should not have been so effective. Connor could have escaped it with the proper leverage. Do you guys even learn basic fighting techniques?"

Nightwing smirked. "And you say you don't have any particular skill."

"I wouldn't call being trained to fight from the moment you could walk a good skill to have." Alex murmured. Nightwing's smile faded.

Alex shook his head sharply. Nightwing recognized that movement. Alex did it whenever he was trying to escape his memories. It happened with a heartbreaking regularity.

Back in the present, Alex turned to Nightwing, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Overall, the team is pretty good. Quite a few of them have some glaring gaps in their skill set however. I get the feeling that they depend a bit too much on their powers, especially the strong ones. That could be easily exploited if they're not careful."

Nightwing blinked as he suddenly realized what Alex was doing.

"That's why you came in here!" He yelped. "You're trying to assess how dangerous they are in case you need to fight your way out. You're figuring out the best tactic to disable each of them right now, aren't you? I can't believe you would do that!"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Bit hypocritical coming from a Bat, don't you think?"

Nightwing was suddenly reminded of why he never tried to verbally spar with Alex. He was still trying to come up with a comeback when Dipper ran into the room.

"Alex!" He yelled, searching the room frantically. Alex moved immediately, running up to the shaking teen and kneeling on front of him.

"Dipper? What's wrong. Are you hurt?"

"I tried to stop him!" Dipper babbled. "I swear, but he… I couldn't…"

"Alex! Check it out!"

Nightwing turned at the sound of Danny's voice. And promptly bit back the urge to throw up.

The halfa was bleeding profusely from his right arm. Which wasn't surprising considering it was partially detached from his body. Nightwing could see Danny's bone, splintered down the middle, and various torn muscles and tendons. But none of that was the worst thing. No, the worst thing was that Danny was smiling as if nothing was wrong.

Nightwing heard someone throw up behind him, and he was pretty sure he heard a thud as someone fainted. He didn't really blame them, whoever they were. Danny was a horrific sight.

Alex stood up, his face carefully blank.

"Danny, what have I told you about partially amputating your limbs?"

"That it looks super cool?" Danny said with a disarming grin. **(Whoa, that pun was unintentional. But I like it…)**

"No…" Alex said slowly. "I said it was bad, and that you shouldn't do it. Remember?"

Danny's face went blank for a second before he started grinning again.

"Oh, yeah you're totally right. Sorry, I get it confused sometimes. Won't happen again."

"I'm sure it won't." Alex said with a strained smile. He glanced at Connor. "Could you patch him up?"

Connor nodded, gently steering Danny toward the infirmary. Dipper looked between Danny and Alex anxiously. When Alex nodded, he ran after the duo, grabbing Danny's free arm. As soon as they were gone, Alex deflated. He looked a decade older.

"How long has he been doing that?" Nightwing asked quietly. Alex rounded on him, eyes blazing with fury.

"You'd know the answer to that if you'd bothered to show your face any time in the past year." He growled. Nightwing took a step back, shocked. Alex's anger faltered.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. I know that you were busy, and it was a good cause and everything, but…"

Alex trailed off, looking lost.

"They're getting worse. Both of them. They're getting worse, and I needed _help."_

Alex's voice cracked on the last word. Nightwing was shocked to realize that Alex was crying. He had never seen Alex cry before.

"I needed help Wing. I kept hoping you would come, but you never did. And you know how I get. I… I stayed awake. I stayed awake for days, til I passed out because my body literally couldn't take it anymore. And then Dipper panicked and had an attack, and Danny, well you know how he is. And when I woke up, I wasn't any better."

Alex rubbed his eyes, trying to hide the evidence of his tears.

"If you'd just come once. Just once! Not even for a whole day, just a few hours so I could sleep without being afraid. Because even now, I can't… I can't do it. I can't sleep, can't take my eyes off of them for a second, can't even blink because I'm convinced that when I open my eyes they'll be dead. And it will be my fault."

"Alex…" Nightwing breathed. Alex glared at him.

"Don't." He said shortly. "Just… don't. I don't need your apologies or pity. I'm sure you did what you had to. We managed by ourselves. We didn't need you."

Alex took a shuddering breath. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go talk Dipper down from a panic attack."

Alex left the room, leaving a stunned silence behind him. Nightwing swallowed, suddenly finding it hard to breath.

"Nightwing?"

Nightwing blinked at Kaldur, who was suddenly in front of him. He blinked rapidly, trying to keep his tears from falling.

"I failed them." He said faintly. "I abandoned them and for what? So I could lie to the team? Risk my friends' lives? To do it all only to watch my best friend die?"

"You had no choice." Artemis said softly. Nightwing shook his head.

"No. No, that's just an excuse people use to make themselves feel better. We always have a choice. I just made a lot of the wrong ones."

"Beating yourself up now won't change anything." Kaldur said confidently. "Now you need to focus on helping them."

Nightwing nodded a few times, trying to get his emotions under control. Kaldur was right. He could punish himself when his friends were okay.

"Has Danny always…" M'gann trailed off awkwardly. Nightwing winced.

"I mean, he's never had the best sense of self preservation, but I didn't think he had started hurting himself. Especially not like… that."

"I'm not sure he did it on purpose…" M'gann said slowly. "His mind was a mess, but it was almost as if he couldn't register how damaged his arm was."

Nightwing ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, that sounds like Danny."

"What happened to him?" Artemis asked, sounding almost scared of the answer. Nightwing stared into the distance for a moment before slowly shaking his head.

"I don't know."

* * *

 **AN: Ooo… Nightwing you liar. You know exactly what happened. And so do I… Muhahahahaha!**

 **That's right. I did a chapter focused on the character that I think the fewest people will recognize. I fear no god.**

 **I promise that I have a reason for why Danny acts the way he does. I think it's pretty great, but I may be a psychopath. I'm pretty sure all of these fictional characters think so anyway.**

 **Bye guys! See ya soon (hopefully).**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: It has occured to me that I spelled 'ciper' with an y, not an i. I've also decided that I don't really care. I think Cypher looks pretty cool, so I'm just going to stick with it.**

 **It has also occured to me that I forgot to answer some questions from my first ever review. Here's a fun fact: if you ask questions in a guest review, I can't answer them directly. I just don't want you to think that I'm ignoring you, or that I don't appreciate your reviews, because I really do.**

 **So guest. In this story, Dipper and Mabel didn't go to Gravity Falls for the first time when they were twelve, they did it every year. Also, both Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford lived together that whole time and taught them magic, so no dimension hopping for Ford. The portal still exists, it was just shut down back when Stan first came to live with Ford. So how did Bill get out? You'll just have to wait and see. ;)**

 **I do not own Gravity Falls, Alex Rider, Young Justice or Danny Phantom. Whew. My mind almost went blank there. Couldn't think of the last one.**

* * *

Bart looked up as Danny phased through the ceiling into the living room. He looked perfectly fine. There was no evidence that yesterday he had looked like a horror story. It was more than a little weird.

Danny walked across the room to where Dipper was sitting and began to talk to him. Dipper was flipping through his magic spell book thingy, nodding absentmindedly every now and then as Danny rambled. There were a lot of golden symbols floating in the air around the teen, and he seemed to be paying more attention to them than to anything Danny was saying.

Bart zipped over to the pair, wanting to ask Danny about yesterday.

"Hey, Dan my man, how are you feeling?"

The next few moments were a blur, and that was saying something for a speedster. Dipper was suddenly in front of him, holding up a hand as a shining gold shield appeared between them and Danny. And just in time too. A barrage of green blasts hit the shield, pushing Dipper back a step.

"Danny, calm down! He didn't mean it!"

Danny paused at Dipper's words. He blinked a couple of times, looking surprised to see Dipper and Bart standing in front of him.

"Oh. Hey guys. What's up?"

Dipper gave a strained smile.

"Oh, just the usual. You know, I just remembered that Bart asked me to help him with something, so we're going to go do that. See ya around, alright?"

Danny nodded cheerfully, waving Dipper and Bart off. Dipper grabbed Bart by the arm and dragged him away, walking quickly. Bart stumbled a bit, too busy staring at Danny in shock to realize that they were moving. He finally managed to recover as Dipper pulled him into the next room.

"What was that?" Bart whisper-yelled. "Did Danny just try to kill us? What is wrong with him?"

"Sorry!" Dipper said earnestly, not looking Bart in the eye. "He didn't mean it, I swear."

"What, like he didn't mean to try and rip his arm off yesterday? Why did he do that?"

Dipper squirmed, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. He looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"You reminded him of something he doesn't like thinking about."

Bart spun, surprised by the unexpected voice. Alex was standing right behind him, arms crossed and a dark look on his face.

"What- you weren't… Where did you come from?" He sputtered, glancing around to make sure that Danny hadn't somehow entered the room as well. Though, if Danny was in the room and didn't want Bart to know, there was no way Bart would be able to figure it out, what with the whole invisibility thing.

Alex relaxed slightly at Bart's words, looking a little sheepish.

"Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I'm used to moving quietly, and it can be a hard habit to break."

Bart nodded rapidly, putting a hand on his chest to try and slow his heartbeat. Not that it was ever that slow to begin with, but still.

"Nah, it's totally crash. I'm cool. Uh… what did you mean about Danny? I'd rather not set him off again."

Alex tensed again. He looked away, fixing his gaze on the far wall.

"Just… don't ever call him Dan, alright? He really doesn't like it."

"Okaaaaayyyyy…." Bart said slowly. It seemed like a bit of an overreaction to him, but what did he know? "Anything else I should worry about?"

"No, as long as you remember that you should be.. fine…"

Alex trailed off, his gaze focussing on something behind Bart. The speedster spun around to see Dipper, hunched in on himself and breathing harshly. The golden symbols from before were back, but there were more this time, and they were spinning around Dipper, slowly picking up speed.

Alex swore under his breath, pushing past Bart to kneel in front of Dipper.

"You good Dip?"

Dipper nodded, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Yeah. I'll be fine. I was putting things in order when this all went down. I fell behind, but I can fix it."

"Are you sure?" Alex asked worriedly. "Do you want me to call Zatanna?"

"No point." Dipper mumbled. "This is because of _her_. It won't stop until she calms down. Throwing another magic user into the mix will only make things worse."

Alex sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Okay fine. Let's just, get you to your room, alright? You can ride it out there."

"Thanks." Dipper whispered, his voice tight with tension. Alex wrapped an arm around Dipper's waist and helped him walk out of the room. He paused next to Bart.

"Sorry again about Danny. I'll talk to him."

Bart wanted to yell, to insist that Alex explain what on earth was wrong with Danny, but he couldn't. Alex just looked so tired, so worn down. He couldn't imagine doing anything to add to the teen's load. So he just nodded and watched Alex and Dipper limp out of the room.

Bart stood there for a minute, thinking about what had just happened. He had been so excited when the trio showed up, but as time passed, he found himself more and more confused by them. Especially Danny. The kid just made no sense at all. He knew that Alex and Dipper knew more than they were letting on, but that wasn't very helpful when they seemed extremely reluctant to talk.

Bart wandered out of the room, looking for other team mates. He found Garfield and Jaime in Garfield's room sharing a bowl of popcorn, and decided to join them. He was still a little mad at the shapeshifter, but they had bigger problems than snack food at the moment.

"Hey guys, what's up?" He asked, plopping down on Garfield's bed and grabbing a handful of popcorn. Garfield glared at him but didn't kick him out, so it was fine.

"We were just talking about our guests." Jaime said, noticeably not commenting on the ongoing snack war between Garfield and Bart. Bart groaned at the words, throwing an arm over his face.

"I just came from talking to them. Word of advice, don't ever call Danny 'Dan.' He might attack you."

"Whoa, Danny attacked you? Are you okay?" Garfield asked, perking up quite a bit. For the first time in a week, he didn't look angry while looking at Bart.

"I'm fine." Bart said, waving a dismissive hand. "Dipper protected me. That kid can move surprising fast, and that's coming from me."

"Do you think it's magic?" Jaime asked curiously. Bart shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe it's just the fact that he knew what to expect. Those three know each other ridiculously well."

"Yeah, I think they're kinda creepy." Garfield muttered, grabbing the bowl of popcorn and setting it on his lap. "I mean, they're all so quiet, you know? You never know when they're just gonna show up somewhere."

"And they are definitely unstable." Jaime added. "Especially Danny. Though honestly, I wouldn't rank Dipper much higher on the mental stability chain. The other day I offered a dorito and he nearly had a panic attack. That's not normal."

"Fair." Bart tried to grab some popcorn, but Garfield was ready for him and yanked the bowl away. Bart scowled at him before continuing. "Personally, I just feel bad for Alex. I mean, he always looks like he's a step away from collapsing out of sheer exhaustion. Can't really blame him though. I'm pretty sure I would have gone insane trying to look after Dipper and Danny."

"I'm pretty sure you're already insane." Garfield laughed, throwing some popcorn at the speedster. Bart caught all the pieces in his mouth, grinning at Garfield.

"Thanks for the popcorn."

Garfield yelled in fake outrage, throwing a pillow at Bart. Bart caught it and threw it back, somehow missing Garfield and nailing Jaime in the head. Soon a full on pillow war was happening, and the three heros forgot all about their previous conversation. None of them noticed Nightwing standing right outside the door.

* * *

Nightwing sat on the floor, fiddling with his wrist gauntlet. He had been training for an hour and had somehow managed to break it, so now he had to fix it before Bruce found out, or he'd be in for a lecture, and he just didn't have time for that, all right? He had things to do, things like reintegrating with the team, and helping his friends adjust to a relatively stable life, and figuring out who attacked them, and clearing their names, and-

"Nightwing?"

Nightwing jerked, then swore as his wrist computer shorted out. Not that there was much chance at salvaging it now. He had mangled all of the circuits by pressing too hard with his tool. The device was completely ruined.

He tossed the gauntlet on the ground in front of him, leaning back on his arms. He glanced up to see Kaldur looking at him worriedly.

"I'm sorry." Kaldur said softly. "I did not mean to startle you. Is there anything I can do to help you fix your device?"

"No, no I'd already broken it beyond repair. There's nothing to be done."

Kaldur nodded, before slowly sitting down next to Nightwing.

"What is wrong my friend? I have not seen you like this in a long time."

Nightwing shook his head, leaning forward to pick up his gauntlet. He started to fiddle with it again, despite knowing that it pointless.

"Nothing's wrong." He told Kaldur, not looking away from the gauntlet. "I'm just kind of tired. You know how it is, night patrols and all that. I'll be fine with a couple hours of sleep."

Kaldur placed a hand on Nightwing's, pulling it away from the ruined gauntlet. It was only then that Nightwing realized that his hands were shaking.

"You don't have to lie anymore." Kaldur said gently. Nightwing closed his eyes, struggling to keep back his tears.

"I- I heard Jaime, Bart and Garfield talking about Danny, Dipper and Alex. They… they don't like them. They think that they're creepy and weird and damaged. Broken."

Nightwing looked down at his gauntlet, trying desperately to think of a way to fix it. It wasn't unfixable. It couldn't be. He had to fix it. He was the protege of freaking Batman, he should be able to find a way fix it.

Kaldur took the gauntlet from Nightwing's loose grip, and set it down beside him.

"They aren't machines Nightwing. They aren't unfixable. No one truly is."

"You say that with the confidence of a man who has never been to Arkham." Nightwing said with a slightly hysterical laugh. Kaldur frowned, unable to deny it.

"I'm sorry." Nightwing said after a slight pause. "I shouldn't be so negative. It isn't the same thing. Danny isn't the Joker. I just… I worry you know? Alex said that they were getting worse, and I honestly can't imagine anything worse than what was happening when I left. And when you mostly deal with people who have severe mental illnesses that never show any signs of improving… it's hard to stay positive."

"I can't promise that things will turn out," Kaldur said softly, "but we will be with you the whole way. None of us will abandon them. They are a part of the team now, even if just in spirit."

Nightwing smiled at that, gently shoulder checking Kaldur.

"I knew there was a reason we made you the boss."

Kaldur smiled back. "And here I thought it was because of my good looks."

Nightwing laughed, getting to his feet.

"Come on. Let's spar, for old times sake. Bet I can still take you down in under a minute."

Kaldur's grin became a bit more predatory.

"Are you sure? I did receive training from the League of Assassins while I was undercover. You might find it to be more of a challenge now."

"I eat ninjas for breakfast." Nightwing said, walking onto the training mat and getting ready. "Bring it on!"

And for just a moment, Nightwing felt as though maybe everything would turn out alright.

* * *

 **AN: So, here we have some relationship building. I dunno. I don't feel like this really added much to the story, but I didn't want to head straight into the main conflict so quickly. This chapter just shows that our lovable trio has been living in the Cave for a while (bout a week) and there is some tension between them and the team. So keep that in mind I guess. The plot will really get going next chapter, so get ready for that.**

 **Bye bye for now.**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Wassup people? It has occurred to me that I have no idea what I am doing. Yay! Isn't this exciting? I am so glad that I jump into stories without being one hundred percent sure about what I'm going to do with them! :D**

 **Nah, it's not that bad. I'm just not super sure I'm going to do this idea justice, but whatever. If I don't write it, no one will. And I'd rather this thing exist in a mediocre form than not exist at all.**

 **BTW guest reviewers: No, this is not related to Double or Nothing. Literally no connection at all. And the update schedule is whenever I feel like it. Sorry for not being more regular, but I can't honestly say that I would stick to a schedule and I don't want to get people's hopes up just to disappoint them.**

 **I don't own Danny Phantom, Alex Rider, Gravity Falls or… the other one. Crap what was it. Uh… Young Justice! That was it! Man, this story is clearly going to be a masterpiece.**

* * *

Barbara frowned as she stared at the results. They didn't make any sense. She tapped her screen as if that would change what she was seeing. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. She leaned back in her chair, huffing.

"What's up?" Tim asked, walking over to her. She startled, having been unaware of the fact that he was in the Batcave. Tim ignored her jumpiness and leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen. He frowned as he took in the data. "What the…?"

"I know." Barbara muttered, pulling up a different screen and comparing it to the first. Her frown deepened as she looked between the two. "What? That can't be right."

"These energy readings… I've never seen anything like it." Tim's eyes flickered over the two screens, taking everything in. "It doesn't match anything we have in the system?"

Barbara shook her head. "No, and I've checked everything multiple times. It's similar to what chaos demons give off, but different somehow. And the sheer amount of power... It's insane."

Tim stood up straight, pulling out his phone. He unlocked it and pulled up one of his more custom-made programs. Barbara uploaded her data to Tim's phone without him having to ask and a few minutes later Tim was scrolling through his own results.

"Well?" Barbara would never admit it, but there were times when Tim could give her a run for her money when it came to technology. If she had missed anything, Tim would find it.

Tim spent a few more moments looking through the information before shaking his head.

"Definitely getting some Clarion vibes, but you're right. It isn't the same. There are no exact matches anywhere."

Tim sighed, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "What are these readings even from?"

"The attack on our new friends." Barbara barely managed to resist the urge to put friends in air quotes. "Dick asked me to look into what happened. He gave me a location and a time and told me to go wild. Nothing really stuck out at first, but then I realised that the JLA had some scanners up nearby because of the Zeta Tube. You know that they like to keep track of the effect the Zeta Tubes have on the local environment. All of my data came from those."

"Yeah okay," Tim said slowly, "but those sensors aren't really designed to pick up stuff like this. These readings shouldn't exist. The sensor should have completely ignored them."

Barbara shrugged helplessly. "You think I don't know that? Maybe that's why the readings are so strange. They could have been distorted by the machine that picked them up."

Tim thought for a second before shaking his head, sighing.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now. Can you set up an alert on the other sensors? You know, in case any of them pick up on this energy signature again?"

"Already done." Barbara turned back to her computer and pulled up a map. The League's sensors lit up the screen, criss-crossing the whole country. Barbara gestured to the screen proudly. "If any of those sensors pick up anything similar to these readings, I'll be the first to know."

"Nice." Tim said with a grin.

Barbara stood up, stretching slightly. She had been sitting at the computer for a couple of hours now, and she felt a bit stiff.

"Come on." She said, walking toward the Batcave's Zeta Tube. "We should tell the others about this. Who knows, maybe our new friends have an idea about what this energy is."

"Dipper did mention something about demons and a chaos dimension." Tim said with a slight shrug. "That sounds like the kinda thing that would give off those signals."

"How much you wanna bet he won't be willing to talk about it?" Barbara said, trying to sound cheerful, but ending up sounding more frustrated than anything.

"It's not their fault." Tim said tiredly. "Everyone has issues. They just have… a bit more than most. That's all. And honestly, none of us are really in a good place to judge."

Barbara tilted her head in acknowledgement as she keyed up the Cave before stepping into the Zeta Tube.

* * *

Dipper took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He was sitting in the room that Nightwing's team had lent him. Well, technically this was Alex's room, but all three of them tended to sleep there, more for Alex's sake than anything else.

Dipper shook his head, trying to get his thoughts back on track. He closed his eyes, stretching his senses out with magic. It was an exercise in control, and control was something he desperately needed in his life. Every waking moment he felt like he was balancing precariously on the edge of complete chaos. It was like trying to hold back an avalanche out of sheer willpower. It certainly didn't help that he had a tendency to fly into panic attacks for little apparent reason. That just made controlling the massive amount of magic contained within him even harder.

That last thought caused Dipper's concentration to break. He felt himself snap back into his body as his tenuous hold on his magic disappeared. Dipper groaned, rubbing his forehead in an attempt to stave off the inevitable headache that came whenever he abruptly lost control of that spell. It was pointless. Dipper felt panic crawl up his throat as his headache got worse. He was hopeless. He would never be able to control this magic It would destroy him, just like it had destroyed everyone else.

 _NO!_

Dipper took a shuddering breath, clenching his hands in his hair. He could not give into this fear. It just made everything worse. He just needed to calm down and relax. He was okay.

Sometimes he got incredibly frustrated with himself. There was no reason for him to be scared right now. Literally nothing was wrong. He was fine. Alex was fine. Heck, even Danny was fine. So why was his heart racing? Why were his hands shaking, why did he feel like he was going to cry, why was he so _scared,_ all the freaking time?

A hand on his shoulder caused him to start. He spun to see Alex, looking at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked quietly. Dipper nodded hesitantly. Alex didn't look convinced, but he let it go. Alex knew better than anyone that Dipper was in a constant state of mild to extreme anxiety. Anything that wasn't a full blown panic attack was honestly pretty good.

Dipper flinched as he heard the Zeta Tube activate in the main room. Alex gave him another look, and Dipper smiled weakly, trying to reassure him. Alex's lips twitched up in a slight smile of his own.

"Let's see who's here, alright?"

Dipper nodded in response to Alex's question and got to his feet. Alex grabbed Danny by the arm and dragged him off of the bed, ignoring the halfa's protests. Alex was a little twitchy about leaving Danny to his own devices, for obvious reasons.

The three teens made their way into the main room of the Cave. Dipper stayed close to Alex, just barely restraining the urge to grab onto the back of his shirt. Danny was the opposite, cringing and whining, trying to rescue his arm from Alex's grip. Alex ignored both of them, focussing on the newcomers.

It looked like Robin and Batgirl had arrived. They were talking with a few other members of the team who had come to greet them. Dipper relaxed a little. For some reason, the Bat kids didn't really scare him. It wasn't that he thought they were less dangerous than the other heros. On the contrary, he was pretty sure they were the most dangerous people on the team. Yet at the same time, he knew that they wouldn't turn that danger on him. Maybe it was because he knew Nightwing so well. Or maybe that Bat kids just gave off a comforting vibe. Regardless of the reason, Dipper always felt better when there were a few Bat kids in the Cave.

Robin noticed the trio and grinned.

"Hey guys! We had something to ask you."

Alex tennsed, not that it was overly obvious. The only reason Dipper noticed was because he was standing close enough to Alex to actually feel the muscles in his back stiffen. Danny noticed as well, if his eye roll was anything to go by. He finally succeeded in yanking his arm out of Alex's grip, taking a step forward.

"Ask away." He said with a grin, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Thanks Danny, but it was actually Dipper we had a question for."

Dipper's heart nearly stopped at Batgirl's words. His heart rate sped up and he pressed closer to Alex, wishing the floor would just open up and swallow him. Alex set a hand on his shoulder without taking his eyes off of Batgirl and Robin. It was his way of offering comfort while still keeping track of the potential threat. The gesture calmed Dipper enough that he was able to step away from Alex, if only a little bit.

"Um, okay. What… what did you want to ask?"

Batgirl brightened, looking excited. She walked over to the computer terminal in the room, pulling up a screen. Dipper stared at the string of numbers that filled the screen. He hoped this wasn't what they wanted to ask him about. He had absolutely no clue what the numbers meant.

"I got these readings off of a scanner that the Justice League had set up near a Zeta Tube. They are from the time of the attack on you guys. We were hoping we would be able to figure out who attacked you based on the readings, but they're really strange. They don't match any energy reading we have seen before."

"But," Robin cut in, stepping forward to gesture at the screen. "they are very similar to readings we got off of Klarion, the Witch Boy. He's a chaos demon, fights against the Lords of Order and all that. That's why we wanted to talk to you Dipper. You mentioned something about chaos demons…?"

Dipper had stopped listening after the words 'chaos demon.' No. It wasn't possible. He wasn't here. He was locked away and couldn't hurt him anymore. Alex had said so, and Alex never lied. Well, not to him anyway. Not about something like that. Alex would never lie about something like that.

But… Alex could be wrong. Dipper couldn't help but feel a little guilty at the thought. Alex was never wrong. That was one of the few constants Dipper had. But at the same time, Dipper knew it was a little unfair to put Alex on such a high pedestal. Alex was just a kid who had as many issues as Dipper did. Alex could be wrong. He would never purposefully lie, but it had been years since Dipper had been to Gravity Falls. Anything could have happened in that time, and there would be no way to know.

Dipper was distantly aware that people were talking to him, but he couldn't hear them. His pulse was pounding in his ears and he suddenly realised that he was hyperventilating. He recognized that he was having a panic attack, but there was nothing he could do about it. It wouldn't matter in the end if _he_ had escaped. Dipper would rather have his heart rupture due to stress than ever face that demon again.

"What's he saying?"

Dipper wasn't sure who said that. He wasn't sure of much. Everything felt unreal.

"He's talking backwards. Zatanna! What is he saying?"

Backwards! But… that was something _he_ did. Someone was speaking backwards? Who would do that? Didn't they know what that meant?

"In Gravity Falls, when earth becomes sky, fear the beast with just one eye."

Those words jerked Dipper back into reality. He gasped, grabbing his head as he was struck by a splitting headache. He felt something on his lip and reached up to realise that his nose was bleeding. He looked around helplessly, his gaze latching onto Alex.

"What… what just…"

"You spaced out Dipper." Danny said carelessly. "You stared to do that backward talking thing you do sometimes. It was nice to actually know what you were saying this time."

Dipper flinched. He had been the one talking backwards? He wasn't sure why he was so surprised. Danny was right, this wasn't the first time he had lapsed into the dialect, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Still, Dipper hated when it happened. He had no control over when it happened or what he would say. It reminded him far too much of when he had been possessed by…

Dipper suddenly remembered what had sent him into the trance in the first place. His breathing sped back up as he started to work himself back into a panic.

"He's here." Dipper whimpered, wrapping his arms around his center as if he was trying to hold himself together. Alex' eyes widened as he realized where Dipper's thoughts were going.

"No. No, he isn't here Dipper. He's trapped, remember? He is not here."

"Yes he is!" Dipper screamed. He was crying now, but he couldn't bring himself to care. "He's always here! He's always there in the shadows, watching and waiting. All he needs is one moment of weakness and he is able to get into your head, and he never ever leaves! He's just there, tainting your dreams and offering deals and _laughing_ til you want to take a hammer to your skull to just get. Him. _OUT!"_

Dipper moaned desperately, falling to his knees and rocking back and forth. He yanked at his hair, as if it would rid him of the memories, of the fear.

"Get out, get out, get out, out out, oUT, OUT, OUT!"

Dipper yelled louder and louder, trying to drown out the laughter that filled his mind, but it was no use. Nothing could ever erase that sound from his head. Nothing.

"For heaven's sake." Danny shoved Alex out of the way and crouched in front of Dipper. He grabbed Danny's wrists, forcing them away from his head. Dipper looked up, startled by Danny's sudden actions.

"He isn't here Dipper. I would know if he was, remember?" Danny sounded annoyed, but his gaze was steady, earnest. It was rare to see Danny so serious. The oddity helped Dipper focus through his fear.

"You… you would know." He repeated faintly. Danny nodded encouragingly.

"Yep. I'm a stellar supernatural detector. I know what demons feel like, and trust me, there are none anywhere near here. Just a bunch of boring magic users. Honestly, we need some more supernatural variety around here. I'm getting sick of the tingle magic gives me. Give me some undead already."

Dipper chuckled slightly at that. The laughter inside his head began to retreat to a bearable level. It never truly went away, but at least he could ignore it most of the time. Danny seemed to sense that he was okay now because he grinned. He patted Dipper on the head before standing up, stretching exaggeratedly.

"Well, that was fun, but I was about to beat this new level on my game before Alex so rudely dragged me out here, so I'm gonna go do that. Ciao!"

Danny vanished before Alex could protest. The teen spy sighed, shaking his head slightly before turning to Dipper.

"Are you okay now?"

Dipper considered the question. He was shaky, exhausted, his head hurt, and he just wanted everyone to leave him alone. So basically the same as he had been before this whole mess happened. Was that okay?

After a moment's consideration, Dipper nodded. It would have to be. At least for now.

Alex looked relieved. He opened his mouth before hesitating, glancing at the other people in the room. He was clearly unsure of what to do with so many people around.

Dipper surprised everyone, including himself, by taking the initiative.

"I don't know anything for sure." He whispered, looking at Robin. "I… I don't know what my demon's energy would look like. Those numbers don't mean anything to me. But I doubt it's him. He's trapped. He can't get out."

Dipper wished he could sound more confident when he said that.

Robin nodded slowly. He was clearly unnerved by what had happened. "Alright. Well, thanks for answering us. I'm sorry that it caused you… distress."

Dipper couldn't help but smile at that. Distress. Well, that was one way to put it.

Alex had seemingly decided that they were done interacting with the Team for the day. He gently pulled Dipper to his feet and began to steer him out of the room.

"If that was all…" He trailed off. Robin nodded, and Alex took that as confirmation that he could leave. He sped up his pace, pulling Dipper along with him.

They were at the doorway of the room when something occurred to Dipper. He paused, pulling Alex up short. He turned back to the room, calling out Robin's name. The teen looked over, clearly surprised.

"It's probably not a demon." Dipper repeated slowly, thinking carefully. "But…"

He hesitated, not wanting to continue. This was always a sore subject for him, and he hated bringing it up.

Alex nudged him when the silence continued for too long, urging him to continue. Dipper flashed him a grateful look before speaking.

"People who make deals with a demon get a portion of their power. It could be someone like that who created those readings."

Robin nodded, taking in the new information. Dipper, feeling his part was done, turned to leave.

"Do you know anyone like that?"

Dipper stopped again at Robin's question. He didn't turn back to look at him, keeping his gaze on the floor. He fought the urge to just walk out of the room without saying anything. He would give almost anything to avoid talking about this.

Dipper finally sighed. It was a defeated sound.

"My sister."

And with that, he walked out of the room.

* * *

 **AN: Wow! I ended up really liking this chapter. It's crazy what comes out when you sit down to write. I didn't plan on any of this happening. In fact, this entire chapter was going to be entirely different, but this is what happened instead. Rad!**

 **ANyway, things should get more exciting next time. We are going to meet the main villain of this story! Yeah! Unless something happens and the chapter completely changes again. I guess we'll see.**

 **Bye guys!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Ugh. Writing with Danny and Dipper is seriously messing with me. I keep mixing up their names and then I have to go back and fix it. If it ever looks like the wrong character is being used, please tell me. I had to fix Chapter 5 twice because I used the wrong name. Super annoying.**

 **Anyway. You may have noticed that it's been a while. I have no excuse. Except for the fact that a had a major depressive episode where I basically didn't do anything for three weeks. So. Kinda an excuse. Yay for using humor as a coping mechanism!**

 **But! Now I am on MEDICATION and I'm going to THERAPY and I'm being honest about my FEELINGS! So hopefully I'll be good now. Fingers crossed!**

 **I don't own Danny Phantom, Young Justice, Alex Rider, or Gravity Falls. Sigh. So much to type. Why do I insist on doing pretty much exclusively crossovers?**

* * *

Danny hummed tunelessly to himself as he wandered the hallways of the Cave. He hadn't had a chance to really explore the place in the two weeks they had been crashing here, what with Alex constantly harping on him about things like 'sleep' and 'eating' and 'oh my god, where did you get that knife, give it to me now' and other nonsense. Danny laughed softly as he remembered the look on Alex's face when he had realized that Danny had a knife. Priceless.

Of course, Alex had taken it away before he could actually _use_ it. Which kind of sucked, but Danny couldn't really blame him. He wouldn't want any of his friends hurting themselves. He would probably freak out if he found out that Dipper had taken a knife to himself.

 _But it's different for me._ He thought sternly. _I need it. It's the only time I can really_ _ **feel**_ _anything. And besides. I deserve it._

Wait, what?

Danny stopped dead in the hallway. Where had that thought come from? Why would he deserve…

Images flickered in his mind's eye and his breathing sped up. No. No, he didn't want to think about this, didn't want to remember it, it _didn't happen-_

Danny blinked. He didn't recognize where he was. Looking around, he figured he was probably in some new part of the Cave. He grinned. Cool! He had been wanting to explore the Cave for a while now, but Alex was constantly bothering him and trying to keep him within eyesight for some ridiculous reason. Honestly, he could take care of himself!

Danny was about to continue exploring when an alarm went off. He perked up a bit, his grin growing a bit wider. He wasn't sure what was going on, but if it involved an alarm, than it would probably be exciting!

He transformed into Phantom with a laugh, rushing toward the main room of the compound. In his hurry, he never even noticed the blood dripping down his arm from a wound that hadn't been there when he entered the hallway.

* * *

Kaldur looked up at the alarm, slightly confused. It wasn't their normal intruder alert. In fact, he had never heard this particular alarm before. He glanced at Nightwing, wondering if this was something that had been installed when he was in charge, but Nightwing looked just as confused.

"We should probably go see what caused that." Kaldur said tiredly. He may not know what was causing the alarm, but he knew it was going to cause problems. Nothing ever went simply for the team.

The two heros headed into the main room of the Cave. There they saw Robin and Danny. Danny was flitting around Robin, asking all kinds of questions which Robin kept deflecting. The kid looked completely overwhelmed.

"I told you, I'm not going to explain it more than once. Just wait until- Nightwing!"

Robin lit up when he saw Kaldur and Nightwing. He slipped around Danny and ran over to them.

"Robin, what is going on?" Kaldur asked as Danny floated over, pouting slightly at being ignored.

"Remember that energy signature that me and Batgirl told you about a few days ago? Well, we set up an alert for if any of those sensors picked it up again."

"And that is what's causing the alarm." Nightwing concluded. Robin nodded, ignoring Danny's mutterings about how that didn't take long and he could have just told him.

"So whatever is causing that signal…" Kaldur began slowly.

"Is probably responsible for the attack on Danny and the others." Robin finished. Danny stopped muttering, looking genuinely interested in something for the first time since Kaldur had met him.

"Really? Where is the signal coming from?" Danny came even closer to the group, looking over Robin's shoulder as if he were hiding the location from him.

"Uh…" Robin looked nervous, inching away from the halfa invading his space. "I'm not sure if I should-"

"It's fine," Nightwing cut in. "He'll just follow us if you don't tell him. Might as well let him come so we can keep an eye on him."

Danny beamed.

"I like the way you think Wing! So, where is it coming from? Come on, tell me tell me tell me!"

"Alright, alright!" Robin pulled up his wrist computer, opening a map. After a few seconds, it zoomed in on a blinking red dot right in the middle of-

"Oklahoma?"

Danny booed, finally moving out of Robin's personal space. "Oklahoma is boring. Why couldn't it have been the moon or something?"

"Of course it's not on the moon! We don't have zeta tubes there." Robin said with a slightly nervous laugh. Danny squinted at him suspiciously, clearly noticing Robin's strange behavior. Kaldur hurried to intervene before the halfa could ask too many questions.

"Regardless. This is a good thing. If we can find out who attacked you, it will be the first step in guarenting your safety."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Safety, smafety. I'm bored! I just want a chance to throw down!"

"You mean you want an acceptable reason to get hurt."

The group turned to see Alex and Dipper, Alex looking extremely annoyed. Kaldur wasn't sure how long they had been standing there, but it was clearly long enough to hear Danny's last words.

Danny didn't seem put off by Alex's comment, merely smiling beautifully at him.

"Alex! Bird boy found the people who attacked us! Doesn't that make you happy? Now you can go all super spy on them!"

Alex didn't respond, but his glower deepened. Dipper looked between the two nervously.

"Danny, Alex was just kidding, right? You wouldn't try to get hurt on purpose. You promised not to do that anymore."

Danny's smile slipped for a second, allowing a sad look to be seen on his face. But just as quickly the smile was back, and Danny zipped over to Dipper, ruffling his hair.

"Of course Alex was joking! I wouldn't do that to you guys. C'mon, don't you trust me?"

Dipper smiled up at Danny, clearly believing him. Alex looked away from the scene, obviously uncomfortable. Nightwing also looked pained, though he tried his best to hide it. He cleared his throat before putting on a smile and stepping up to curly haired boy.

"Hey Dipper, let me show you the bioship. It's what we use to get around when we don't use the zeta tubes, and it's really cool! You're going to love it!"

Dipper glanced at Alex nervously, but he followed Nightwing without too much complaint. In fact, he actually looked pretty excited about seeing an actual martian spacecraft.

Nightwing and Dipper headed into the hangar, with Robin close behind. Kaldur was about to follow, but he stopped when he heard Alex and Danny talking.

"I was joking, was I?" Alex sounded bitter.

"Did you want Dipper to be upset?" Danny hissed, sounding serious for once. "And besides, I did promise to stop. You could trust me for once."

"No, I can't." Danny growled at Alex's words. He started to say something, but stopped when Alex grabbed his arm and yanked it up to eye level.

"If you've really stopped, than what's this?"

Silence fell as they all looked at Danny's arm. Kaldur hadn't noticed before, but it was wet with some dark liquid. When Alex rolled up the sleeve, Kaldur was shocked to see deep gouges in the arm, some of which were still bleeding.

Danny stared at his arm blankly. Slowly he shook his head.

"I didn't. Alex, I swear I didn't do it. I wouldn't do that, I promise!"

Alex didn't say anything. He merely grabbed Danny's other hand and brought it up. Blood was clearly visible beneath the nails.

Danny sucked in a sharp breath. He looked away from Alex's steady gaze, shame written all over his features. Alex let go of his arms and Danny pulled them in close to his body. The room was silent and filled with tension.

"I don't remember." Danny finally whispered.

"I know."

"I don't mean to."

"I know." Alex sounded completely miserable.

"I'll do better."

Alex didn't say anything. He closed his eyes and tried to swallow back tears.

"Okay." His voice was thick with suppressed sobs. "I believe you Danny."

Danny nodded and ran out of the room, passing a stunned Kaldur. Alex didn't move, though his shoulders shook. After a long moment, he looked up at Kaldur.

"He won't remember this." Alex's voice was flat, dead. "Ask him tomorrow, and he'll have no memory of this conversation ever happening."

Alex started to walk out of the room, but he paused when he was right next to Kaldur.

"One day, he'll go too far. And I won't be able to save him. I can't save either of them really. At this point, it's just a question of who goes first. Danny with his self destructive habits, or Dipper with his self destructive magic. Either way, neither of them will survive to adulthood."

Kaldur swallowed, trying to quell his nausea. "Why are you telling me this?"

Alex shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I'm just tired of dealing with it myself. Maybe so you're prepared for when it inevitably happens. Maybe so you don't feel guilty that you couldn't stop it."

Alex finally looked him in the eye.

"One thing is certain. Out of the three of us, I'll be the last to die."

Kaldur flinched. What did Alex mean by that? He searched the spy's face, looking for a clue, but found none. Alex's face was completely blank, unreadable. He jerked his head toward the hangar.

"Come on. Let's go see what caused that signal."

Alex walked out of the room, leaving Kaldur alone with dark thoughts and questions he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to.

* * *

 **AN: AH, this chapter is so short, but that was just such a nice resting point that I couldn't get myself to keep going. Sorry guys, I know I said we would be meeting the villain this time, but it just didn't end up happening. Next time for sure!**

 **Also, this chapter was darker than I was expecting. I'm starting to get more into what's up with Danny (writing that section from his point of view was really fun) so that's nice. What did Alex mean with his comment at the end? It's up to you!**

 **Again, sorry this took so long. I have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen next chapter, so I should be able to get it out faster. Until then, ciao!**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Guys. I'm gonna be level with you. This story is really hard to write. I have been avoiding it for a reason. BUT! I will finish it. I will never abandon one of my stories. Unless I die or something I guess… Fingers crossed that doesn't happen!**

 **ANYWAY! I may have definitely overloaded myself by attempting to write four different stories at the same time, but I will rise to the occasion! Don't worry my 23 followers! I've got this!**

 **I don't own Danny Phantom, Alex Rider, Young Justice or Gravity Falls. Oof. I'd forgotten how much that was to type.**

* * *

Dipper stared out the window, ignoring the quiet conversation that was happening in the background. He was nervous. Not like that was anything new, but at least he had a reason to be nervous this time.

Demon energy. They were hunting down demmon energy. Dipper chewed on the inside of his cheek. If whoever had caused this signal was really the one who had attacked them, than there was only one real candidate for who it could be.

Dipper closed his eyes, taking in a shuddering breath. Maybe it wasn't her. Maybe this had nothing to do with them. It could just be a huge coincidence…

Right?

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of Danny's laughter. Dipper's frown deepened. Danny laughing was very rarely a good sign. Danny doing anything was rarely a good sign.

Dipper wasn't an idiot. He knew that Danny still hurt himself. Of course he did. He only acted oblivious because that was the best way to reign Danny in. Danny very rarely showed any real emotion or connections to anything, but Dipper knew that he liked him and Alex and that he would do anything to protect them. The only times that Danny seemed really 'there' was when he was trying to help either Dipper or Alex.

Dipper felt a little bad for manipulating Danny's feelings like that, but he would never stop. Those moments were the only time when the real Danny came out, and Dipper would never give them up.

"We're here."

Dipper looked up when Robin spoke, tuning back into his surroundings. He waited quietly as the others discussed tactics. That wasn't really his thing. Dipper didn't like fighting, especially not with his unstable magic. It would be better for everyone if he stayed in the background if it came to a fight.

"Dipper."

Startled, Dipper shrank back. He relaxed when he realized it was just Alex. Apparently they were done discussing their course of action. Dipper wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, but it became apparent when Alex gestured for Dipper to follow him.

They emerged into an empty field. Dipper couldn't see anything in any direction. He frowned, confused.

"Why do you have a zeta tube here? There isn't anything here." Alex asked, apparently thinking the same thing. Nightwing and Aqualad exchanged a look.

"There used to be." Nightwing said quietly. He didn't seem inclined to explain further.

"Welp!" Danny said cheerfully. "That was ominous. Anyway, where's this big energy source? I wanna poke it!"

"Oh! So forward! Well, I suppose I wouldn't be completely opposed."

The entire group flinched at the unexpected voice. Even Danny looked surprised.

Dipper paled rapidly. No, it couldn't be. She couldn't be here, please.

"Show yourself." Aqualad yelled, pulling out his water bearers. Nightwing and Robin followed his lead, getting into offensive positions.

"Aw. You guys are so cute, thinking you can threaten me. But, I did come here to talk, so why not?"

Dipper covered his ears, trying to block out the voice. Maybe if he couldn't hear it, it would go away. He felt a bright light shine on his closed eyelids. He hadn't even realised that he had closed his eyes until that moment. Still, now that he thought about it, it seemed like a good idea. See no evil, hear no evil…

" _Come on bro bro. Haven't you missed me?"_

Dipper gasped, his eyes flying open in shock. The voice had sounded inside his head, bypassing his ears entirely. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he finally saw the source of energy signal.

His sister.

Time hadn't been good to her. She was pale, practically white. Dipper could see her veins running through her body, glowing gold with pure magic. She was much taller now, taller than he was, but it looked strange, unnatural. It was as if her body had been twisted by the sheer power contained within it, trying to escape itself in a self defeating cycle of pain. Her hair was long and tangled, constantly blowing in some unseen wind. Despite her growth, she was still wearing her old sweater, the one with the shooting star on it. It was dirty, unraveling in places, but still recognizable.

Still his sister.

"Pinetree!" She said with a manic grin. Her eyes were solid gold. "I've missed you!"

Dipper swallowed, trying to keep down bile. The last time he had seen his sister, she had been spiralling, but she had still looked human at least. This… thing wearing his sister's skin was not her. It wasn't the girl he had grown up with.

"Leave him alone." Alex growled, stepping in front of Dipper. "Explain yourself. What are you doing here?"

The girl huffed.

"I just wanted to see my little brother again," she whined, crossing her arms. The grin returned abruptly and she began to laugh. "Ha! Little! Pinetree really is little now, isn't he? I guess I really was the alpha twin in the end!"

She stifled her giggles, covering her mouth with her hands. She got a mischievous look on her face.

"Of course, that's not the only thing I ended up being better at."

She winked at Dipper. "How's the magic going bro bro? Good to see that you're still standing. I always knew that we were better than those fakes."

Dipper felt a flash of anger go through him. He shoved his way best Alex, ignoring his friend's attempts to stop him.

"How dare you." He hissed, clenching his hands into fists. "How dare you talk about them that way?"

The girl shrugged, looking unconcerned. "They were weak."

"They were our friends." Dipper's eyes stung as he tried to hold back his tears. "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

The girl seemed to think about it.

"Nope!" She said with a grin. Dipper felt a part of him that he hadn't even realised he had shatter. Despite everything his sister had done, despite all the pain and suffering she had caused, he had always hoped that she could be saved. That his best friend was still in there somewhere. That hope was gone now.

Dipper's face smoothed out, his tears gone. This wasn't his sister. This was a monster, and he would treat it as such.

"What do you want Shooting Star?"

Alex shot him a concerned look. His voice had flattened out, all emotion gone. Shooting Star noticed the change as well.

"Aw, don't be like that Pinetree," she pouted. "It's nothing personal. I mean, if they hadn't insisted on sticking their nose into things that didn't concern them, I would have left them alone. But they just had to go and threaten my boyfriend!"

Dipper felt cold. No. No, stop it, don't say it.

"Boyfriend?" That was Danny. Shooting Star grinned at him.

"Bill of course! I miss him so much. I haven't seen him since the army dragged us out of his paradise. I wish I could go back, I really do, but then I'd be stuck too. Bill told me to go so I could find a way to break him out, and I will! Nothing can keep us apart!"

The words were reaching Dipper through a veil of static. With each word out of Shooting Star's mouth, his carefully crafted story was falling apart. Lies that he had told for years were unravelling.

"Bill… told you to go?" Nightwing straightened slightly, falling out of his ready stance in his surprise. He glanced at Dipper, confusion written all over his features. "But… that doesn't make sense. You went insane in the government lab. Why would you…"

"Oh, is that what my dear brother told you?" Shooting Star said. Her smile was so wide it looked like her face was splitting in half. "That's so sweet! You can tell he's a good brother because he's trying to protect my reputation."

Alex looked shattered. He stared at Dipper with wide eyes. Dipper refused to meet his gaze, focussing on the creature in front of him.

"What. Do. You. Want?" He spat out, ignoring his friends questioning looks.

Shooting Star tsked.

"So impatient." She said, shaking a finger at him. "This is why you never had any friends when we were growing up. All work and no play. Don't you want to catch up with your twin sister?"

Dipper refused to respond, only glaring. After a long moment, Shooting Star sighed.

"Oh alright. I need your help."

Dipper blinked. He… hadn't been expecting that.

"I've been trying to get Bill out for years now," she continued, not noticing the look of dawning horror on Dipper's face, "but nothing's worked! I mean, even when I got rid of the other Cypher members, the extra magic wasn't enough. I can't break through the barrier, no matter what I try."

Shooting Star focussed in on Dipper again, her eyes shining madly.

"But together! Together, we wield the full might of the Cypher Wheel! We could do it! We could let Bill out! We would take over the entire world, spread Bill's paradise to whole universe! Bill would welcome you back, I know it! He was always talking about you, you know. I let him use my body, but it was never enough for him. He wants you. It's always been you."

Dipper swayed slightly on his feet. Bill wanted him? He remembered what it was like to have Bill inside him. He would never let that happen again.

Shooting Star held out a hand to him. It caught on fire with that familiar blue light, so much like Bill that it hurt. She smiled at Dipper, not one of her crazed smiles, but one that reminded him of better days.

"What do you say bro bro? Mystery twins?"

Dipper stared at her hand for a long moment. Slowly, he shook his head.

Shooting Star's face twisted.

"You would betray your sister?" She asked in a harsh voice, the flames around her hand burning brighter.

Dipper took a step back.

"My sister died a long time ago." He whispered.

Shooting Star froze. Her hair stopped waving and the flames around her hand stopped flickering. She looked like a photograph of herself, completely still.

"I see."

She slowly started moving again. The wind in her hair started up, gentle at first but building in speed, getting harsher and harsher until it looked like she was standing in the middle of a storm. The flames around her hand traveled up her arm and covered her entire body, turning red.

"If that's how you really feel." Her voice started to distort, becoming a deep roar. "Then I guess I'll just have to TAKE IT!"

Dipper barely moved fast enough. On Shooting Star's last word, a wave of pure force slammed into their group. Dipper erected a shield just before the force hit, pouring everything he had into it. Even so, he was pushed back several feet by the initial blow.

"REaLlY?" Shooting Star's voice was inhuman, a twisting shriek. "YoU stIlL WoN'T uSe iT? ThOsE LiTtLe TriCks wOn'T StOP mE!"

Dipper cried out as the magic attacking them got even stronger. He felt blood begin to drip from his nose. She was right. He couldn't hold her using the magic his uncles had taught him. But he couldn't use the magic of the Cypher Wheel. He couldn't. He wouldn't.

"Dipper!"

Dipper barely heard the voice over the roar of magic. He turned to see Alex staring at him.

" _It's okay. You can do this."_

Dipper couldn't hear the words, but he could tell what Alex was saying. Dipper felt a tear go down his cheek. He had lied to Alex. He had lied about his sister, about Bill, about the events that had led to Gravity Fall's destruction, but Alex still believed in him.

Magic burst out of him without his conscious thought. It slammed through Shooting Star's, blasting her away. She went flying, landing several meters away and rolling a few more feet before finally stopping.

Dipper staggered and fell, shaking violently. He shuddered, trying desperately to reign his magic in. It swirled around him, aching to lash out, to destroy, but he refused to let that happen. He realized the wild magic in bit by bit, ignoring the painful burning that filled his body as he fought with a power too great for him to ever fully control.

Laughter distracted him from his task. He looked up to see Shooting Star sitting up, laughing the entire time. The red flames had faded, leaving her looking almost normal in comparison.

"Yes!" She gasped through her laughter. "Oh yes! That was beautiful Pinetree. You used it! You really used it! And so much too! Maybe you really are better at magic than me!"

She stood up, clearly unsteady. Dipper felt his stomach twist looking at her. She had blood dripping down her forehead from a cut. One of her arms was limp, clearly broken from the fall. She limped heavily when she walked toward him. Despite all that, her smile never wavered.

"I knew you had it in you Pinetree!" She said with a beaming smile. She paused a few feet away, suddenly noticing her sorry state.

"Aw man. I can't fight you right now. I'm all broken."

She brightened quickly.

"But don't worry! I'll be back bro bro. And next time, I won't underestimate you! We'll see who's really better at magic!"

Before any of them could react, Shooting Star was gone. Dipper stared at the spot where she had been, his mind empty. A sudden surge of magic brought him back to the present and he stamped the power down fiercely. More blood poured from his nose, and he was pretty sure his ears were bleeding as well, but he finally managed to wrangle his magic back into a semi-stable state.

"Are you okay?"

Dipper smiled weakly at Alex. He was sure it wasn't very reassuring, what with all the blood on his face, but oh well. It was the best he could do at the moment.

Alex hesitated, looking torn.

"Dipper… some of the things she said… were they true?"

Dipper sucked in a sharp breath. He had almost forgotten about that. He wanted to deny it, to say that she had been lying, but he couldn't. His friends didn't deserve that.

He took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts. Finally, he began to speak.

"Guys. There's something I need to tell you."

* * *

 **AN: AHAHAHAH! CLIFF HANGER! YEAH!**

 **Idk, maybe ending on a cliff hanger will get me to update sooner next time. Who knows?**

 **Well there you have it. Crazy Mabel, the villain of our story. I hope she seemed crazy enough to you guys! Next time we get the real story of what happened to her, along with the rest of the town! So get hyped! It should be fun.**

 **Anyway, bye bye for now! Love y'all!**


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